Going to Build a Home Based Business in Canada?I get asked about this a lot. We Canadians tend to be more reserved than perhaps our friends to the south. Our national heroes were trappers and explorers, not giants of industry. The perfect home based business is not one with an upline, downline as a sideline. It is affiliate marketing.Here are 3 top concerns that have been expressed to me about a home based business:What chance have I got from the middle of nowhere, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan? Online, you have the same chance as someone living in Manhattan, Los Angeles or Toronto. It is the great equalizer. All you require is access to the internet. After that, it is all up to you. This is truly the best Canadian home based business opportunity imaginable.I live in Northwestern Ontario. I watched a moose roam down the road the other day as I was taking care of business. Doing business in Canada, you have to love it!Where do I get financing? You don’t need any with affiliate marketing. I suggest you start for free. No, I am not kidding. By far the best way to start online is by starting an affiliate business. What this involves is that you basically become a commission salesperson for a company. They handle the closing of the sale, collection of money, shipping, handling, customer issues, everything. The best of these companies can be seen at ClickBank. You can also check out Linkshare and Commission Junction.Make sure to check with your accountant to make sure you are getting the proper business tax deductions from Revenue Canada. Running a home based business in Canada legally allows you to write off a certain percentage of your household expenses.How do I get set up? It’s easy with affiliate marketing. Choose a niche you would like to be in and that you believe would bring you profit. Do some research on how much demand and supply there is, determine if you can find a suitable product to fill the need in your niche and either start producing SEO’d articles or lenses at Squidoo. You do not need a web site to start and these places are free.Can you see now that the perfect home based business in Canada is affiliate marketing online? The biggest difference with an offline business is that you have no one coming through your door. They all enter your premises on your internet cable and people seem to find this intimidating.
What You Need to Know Before Starting a Home Based Business
More and more people are turning to the internet to start their own home based businesses as a result of losing their jobs. Many people see it as a way to ‘recession proof’ their income and gain more control over their finances. It can be an exciting time, but there are definitely a few things to think about before jumping into anything.There are many people and many products online that are offering less-than-genuine offers of starting one’s own home based business. These companies see you as a sitting duck and they are ready to pounce all over you, but if you do your homework and take emotion out of the decision process you won’t be taken advantage of. The Federal Trade Commission just doesn’t have enough manpower to regulate and shut down every illegitimate business, but there are steps you can do to protect yourself while starting your own home based business.To begin, search for businesses that have been in operation for a while, a flash in the pan business offering garbage products won’t last very long. When on the company’s website, look for prominent news sources that you are confident have done the proper research to make sure they were covering a sound home based business. Seek out home businesses where the founders have achieved success outside of their current opportunity, who began their current business to fill a particular niche in the market, and who are genuinely interested in helping others start their own businesses and not just interested in making a quick buck.Of course, once you find a company that you feel you can trust, make sure you are ready to handle the urgency it requires to work for yourself. Being able to put every bit of energy into your work is the only way you will be able to fulfill you end of any bargain you make with an online marketing company.There are many internet ‘business in a box’ solutions out there that can meet your needs and talents. Home based businesses that have an application process end up saving you many hours of working with people that are not very serious because it will weed Read their client testimonies carefully and look between the lines. This should go without saying, but make sure you know what you are getting into when joining a company. Businesses that provide in depth training, workshops, and live support is a big step in the right direction. Businesses with good clear communication can be an indication that they are for real interested in your economic security as well as their own.Marketing online can be tricky and a difficult landscape to navigate, but being able to ask lots of questions and have them answered clearly are the signs you are getting a great return on your investment when starting a home based business.
10 Useful Books for Small Business Owners
Reading good management books enables small business owners think and act wisely. It helps them improve their ability to carry out business in the right way, by successfully resolving issues that a business is likely to face.
There are thousands of books available in the market. It can be very confusing for a small business owner on what to pick and read. We have listed 10 books that every small business owner should read to succeed in business.
1. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey:
This is a book useful to everyone in general and small business owners in particular. It explains seven habits that are essential to be able to influence others. The seven habits discussed in this book are ‘be proactive’, ‘begin with the end in mind’, ‘put first things first’, ‘think win-win’, ‘seek first to understand, then to be understood’, ‘synergize’ and ‘sharpen the saw’.
These principles will help you in shaping and strengthening your personality to tackle the issues at stake. They would help you develop a positive and pragmatic attitude without making you go over board under a given situation.
2. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath:
Using case studies, the authors claim that for any business, certain ideas are universal. The ideas may look simple, but are critical to make your business survive in the face of distress to business.
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie:
No business can run without the cooperation of customers. To survive competition, you have to win people. For this, you should have the skills to influence people. These people can be your customers, clientele, vendors, retailers or creditors.
You can nurture skills to influence them all by reading this book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Lucid, and self explanatory, the book expounds the points with empirical examples and sound practical common sense.
4. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill:
This book is an inspiration and is the result of more than two decades of research by the author Napoleon Hill. Hill gives thirteen principles, which can help you to reach your goal. This book is an excellent source of information for beginners.
5. Getting Things Done by David Alien:
This book helps you to improve the productivity of your business. It points to various hindrances and dangers to your business. Further, it enables you to delegate responsibilities efficiently.
6. Good to Great by Jim Collins:
Jim Collins and team have examined the proposition whether a good company can become great. Collins says that the transition is possible if certain conditions are fulfilled, for instance, by removing redundant labor and fostering an ideal corporate culture. He also says that the personnel at the top management should be honest.
The book would help you to realize and discover new knowledge, techniques of managing people and business, dealing with different groups such as clientele, vendors and the like.
7. The E-Myth Revisited by Micheal Gerber:
This book explains reasons for failure of a business within a few years of inception. The author provides supportive examples with empirical data. He finds that most small businesses become defunct because of lack of certain attributes on part of the owners. He says the business owner needs to be a technician, a manager as well as an entrepreneur; only then the business will survive.
8. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau:
Chris Guillebeau focuses on the affairs of a tiny enterprise with one, two persons in the operation. Beginners and those who are planning a new start-up should read this book.
9. Rework by Jason Fried:
This book contains common sense ideas. If applied practically, they help you build qualities that are indispensable for a business owner.
10. Built to Sell by John Warrillow and Bo Burlingham:
This book will help those who want to sell their business. Others will also, find it useful. The authors have explained in detail the points to observe initially, and how to get profits from the business, sustain growth momentum of the business and finally sell the business.
As a small business owner, reading these books will benefit you largely. You will improve knowledge on how to do things in business, and thus will be able to do your business better.